Old painting of the Rheinfalls; Silvia, Christina, E. Larson; looks like a butter churn at the castle.

JUNE 13, 2010 SUNDAY

It looks like the rain is here to stay for awhile. I walked in to the Church with my trusty pink umbrella over my head. It was only a mist, but throughout the day it rained harder and harder and at 10:00 is still pouring pretty good. I got our weekly report done and then saved it not remembering to use the “save-as” function first, so last week’s report was erased. So I don’t have to write a lot of the information over and over every week, I usually pull up last week’s report, make a copy and then update it. I’ll have to redo last week’s report to correct that mistake. Bishop Flammia likes each week’s report to stay on the computer for future reference.

Diana arrived with Sister Jaermann and then we waited anxiously for Katia and Emely DiPaolo
to arrive. Of course we were hoping Roger, Jasmin (+kids) and Kofi (+kids) would come also, but we were focused most on the DiPaolos. The DiPaolos absolutely had to come to every sacrament meeting between now and July 10 so that Emely could get baptized. None of the above came which was so disappointing. Unless things change dramatically with attendance and commitment, Pres. Flammia and Pres. Matern think it would be better for Emely to wait until she can come on her own or have a system where, if her mother doesn’t bring her, someone will pick her up and bring her instead. We’ll see how this works out.

Pres. Flammia gave the first talk in Sacrament Meeting and talked about the fruits of the gospel are on display with what kind of an example we set. We all have the responsibility to live our religion and to help build our branch by supporting and loving one another. The other speaker was from the stake Sunday school presidency and gave a good talk on how to talk to people about the gospel. He gave many examples of how to turn ordinary contact with people into a missionary experience. During Sunday school the same person conducted a teacher trainer discussion on how to use questions effectively in teaching the gospel. He really had some good ideas, but also elicited good comments from the class members.

Following Sunday school we went home and quickly made some chicken noodle soup and then took it to Jasmin Hunziker. She texted us during sacrament meeting to tell us she would call us and let us know when we could come again, but we decided to make the soup and just take it to her anyway. When we got there, she wasn’t home so we gave it to her cute nine year old daughter, Deborah. We asked Deborah to let her mother know we only have Tuesday evening this week in which we can meet with them. We hurried back to the train stop and didn’t have to wait long before it came.

Silvia invited us to come to her home tonight for dinner and later on she called and told us she had also invited a friend of hers who had almost given up on life. She wanted us to prepare a lesson on hope, but also wanted us to use the salt/pepper/plastic spoon/wool rag object lesson. Diana prepared one lesson and I prepared two and then left it up to the Spirit on which one to give. Christina’s story is too long to tell in detail, but to summarize, she was run over by someone while walking along the road. The person left the scene without helping her. Because she was unconscious and couldn’t call the police, both her health insurance or the social security won’t pay. Both say it’s the other’s responsibility and neither one is willing to pay. She isn’t physically able to work anymore so it’s worked a real hardship on her. We had a discussion of the Plan of Salvation using the salt/pepper etc. object lesson to demonstrate the Atonement and being made clean through faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. In the end she said she didn’t need a church, nor the bible, nor the Book of Mormon, she just needed her faith and prayers and that was enough. We hope we at least we planted some seeds. After dinner and the discussion she drove us home so we wouldn’t have to wait for the bus in the rain. On the way she told us she was surviving by writing books (2) and poems. She also writes personal poems for birthdays, weddings etc. with information the customers give her.

While at Silvia’s, we got a call from Elder Bentley asking for our statistical report for the week. We told him we would call him back as soon as we got home which we did. We also told him to pass around that the trip to Pilatus was off because of the rain. There was no sense in going up to the top of the mountains if we wouldn’t be able to see anything. Later on Elder Vincent called to see how we were doing and to wish us a good night. Since we were on the computer, he asked us to find out the score between German and Australia. The score was 4-0 which made him happy. We also mentioned the USA-England game ended in a tie which in reality was a win for USA. England It was a short (5 minute), but sweet call. We’ll see him Wednesday at the temple.

The tender mercy for today is that we had the privilege of bearing testimony of the restoration and the Plan of Salvation although it seemed to fall on deaf ears. The other one was that Silvia wanted Diana to try on a Schaffhausen traditional costume and thought it would fit her. If it would have fit, she was going to give it to her. It flattered Diana for Silvia to think the dress would fit.